Dan Cable

Learning is not failure—but sometimes it can feel like it in the middle of the process. In fact, this is why so many personal and organizational change attempts fizzle out. We will reflect on the “chatter” that our brain uses to “talk to us” during episodes of change, and the emotions we feel during this experience. As we talk about making change “the new normal,” we will cover three practical underlying principles of change as “make or break” investments: 1) the power of purpose, 2) learning mindset and investing in good pain, and 3) celebrating early wins. A key part of our discussion is the distinction between growth and achieving mindsets, and how achievement today using comfortable behaviors may lead to irrelevance tomorrow.

How can you put your self-doubts to work for you? When leaders reveal their trip-ups and failures, they build a culture of psychological safety and are seen as more approachable. But being vulnerable isn’t easy. We will look at evidence-based approaches to showing vulnerability and building trust, without losing employees’ confidence. We’ll discuss the power of sharing some of your personal developmental journey, when you personally received constructive feedback that you needed to improve and adapt, which normalizes learning.

We will discuss why purpose is important to humans, and why stories about purpose are so critical in inspiring employee commitment and resilience, particularly when change, innovation and creativity are necessary.  Purpose also promotes health and well-being: when we feel a sense of purpose, our immune cells are more effective, leading to longer, better lives. We will discuss how leaders can help themselves and employees feel more purpose by enabling them to 1) play to their strengths and innovate at work, 2) balance urgent work with important work, and 3) personalize their stories about purpose in their work. Dan will introduce methods to expose the stories we are currently telling ourselves about the why off the work, and to think about other stories be more inspiring.

What does neuroscience tell us about creating sustainable change in our habits and our cultures? How can leaders trigger the helpful emotions of curiosity and excitement instead of anxiety and fear? We’ll discuss how our brains tells us that new activities are “not authentic” and what we can do about it. Finally, Dan can talk about how the brain “holds” its image of a self and we can activate our best selves more often.

Great leaders inspire people to apply the best of themselves – their hands, their heads, and their hearts – toward a shared vision about how the organization excites customers. Great firms invest heavily making sure that their people reliably act and make decisions in ways that differentiate them from the competition.  They implement ‘strange’ workforce systems that make employees act in noticeably better ways.